MARIETTA — The Cobb Board of Commissioners closed the Hattie G. Wilson Library off Lemon Street in a 5-0 vote on Tuesday.

The last day of the library service will be Jan. 17.

Between January and November of last year, circulation had dropped by more than 50 percent, library director Helen Poyer said.

Commissioner Lisa Cupid asked if anyone in the surrounding community had been consulted about the closure.

County Manager David Hankerson spoke up and said the county had made a commitment to keep the library open until after the adjacent 120-unit public housing facility, Fort Hill Homes, was vacated.

The Marietta Housing Authority, through the use of Section 8 vouchers, moved the last Fort Hill resident out in November, said MHA executive director Ray Buday.

Buday said the plan is to raze the Fort Hill complex by Spring and leave it grassed and unfenced until his board decides what to do with the 6.3 acres of property.

As for the library building itself, which served as all-black Lemon Street School before integration, that building is owned by Marietta City Schools, which has no current plans for the vacated space, said spokesman Thomas Algarin.

The county opened the library in the former school in 1971. In 1986, it was named the Hattie G. Wilson Library in honor of the late Wilson’s 33 years of service to the community.

The 2.5 positions that staff the library will be reassigned, while the library materials will be moved to the Central Library on Roswell Street by the Marietta Square.

In other business, the board voted 5-0, adopting a resolution requesting legislative action to permit a special purpose local option sales tax at a fraction of one percent.

The board authorized a $40,000 earmark from the county’s hotel-motel tax collections to go to Cobb Travel & Tourism, a non profit charged with helping the community with long term travel and tourism goals.

The board approved a pilot program that will install 10 speed display signs at five intersection locations for $45,000. The locations are at Cumberland Parkway near Beech Haven Trail; Hurt Road near Lakeshore Drive, Old Stilesboro Road near County Line Road, Kinjac Drive and Windy Hill Road near Austell Road

The county’s transportation director, Faye DiMassimo, expects the pilot will take one year.

The board also unanimously approved the following contracts:

* with M.V.P. Piping Company, Inc. for $135,174 for Kings Row sewer repair in east Cobb;

* with G.S. Construction, Inc. for $339,855 for replacement of a Kennesaw station water main located off McCollum Parkway;

*with K.M. Davis Contracting Co., Inc. for $758,140 for a Somerset Subdivision water main replacement near Lower Roswell Road and Old Paper Mill Road in east Cobb;

* with the ACS Government Systems, Inc. for an upgrade to the justice information applications used by the Cobb County Court System in an amount not to exceed $760,000;

* with HNTB Corporation for $512,038 for the design of intersection improvements at the corner of Cobb Parkway and Windy Hill Road. The project involves adding and extending turn and through lanes, a median along the western leg of the intersection, and designing the footprint of lanes that will give buses priority in traveling through that intersection along Cobb Parkway;

* with Reynolds, Smith and Hills, Inc for $152,285 for engineering and design services of a bridge replacement on Burnt Hickory Road over Mud Creek near Barrett Parkway;

* with D&H Construction Company, Inc. for $79,494 for drainage system repairs on Old Paper Mill Drive near Terrell Mill Road in east Cobb;

* with URS Corporation for $120,000 for traffic engineering upgrades to the county’s transportation management system to improve traffic flow;

* with AMEC Environment and Infrastructure Inc. for $267,985 for historical architecture and related professional services for the renovation of the historic Hyde Farm in east Cobb;

* And approved a contract with Electro-Mech Scoreboard Company for $550,000 for the purchase of LED scoreboards in county parks. County staff anticipate the sum will allow for the installation of new scoreboards in the 52 county parks that have athletic fields.

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